My FAMI-SALEF Investment Update!!!

It's been a long time since I updated you guys about my FAMI-SALEF Mutual Fund Investment. Can't even believe that its been two years already since I started my investing journey through FAMI Mutual Fund. Its a big financial move that I did at 19 and never regretted ever since. 

A Back Story

I invested in a FAMI-Save and Learn Equity Fund last January 2013. FAMI-SALEF is one of the many investment products from First Metro Asset Management Inc. which is part of the Metrobank Group. SEE LINK: http://fami.com.ph/

I battled between investing in a FAMI mutual fund (which is an indirect stock investment) or COL Easy Investment Plan (which is an direct stock investment). After much deliberation between the pros and cons I settled for FAMI and I have stated my reasons in the post, FAMI or COL Financial Beginners Alert! 

I did my first FAMI Update after six months of investing in FAMI-SALEF and still have all the good things to say about my big financial move. After a year of investing I shared the lessons I learned in another post called Things I Realized After My First Investment. 

What's My FAMI-SALEF Investment Strategy?

I have mentioned in the past that I treat my FAMI-SALEF Investment like a savings account. I am doing Peso-Cost Averaging method wherein I invest monthly a fixed amount of 1,000 pesos as a top up. To easily and conveniently pay I enrolled my FAMI-SALEF on my Metrobank Direct and you can click HERE on the step by step process. This way I don't need to go over the counter just to top up my investments.

Tracking My FAMI-SALEF Investments

In every investment I make I receive a Statement of Account via mail on my chosen mailing address. This Statement of Account (SOA) is your proof of purchase that shows you the current NAVPS on the date of your purchase and the Number of Shares you owned. READ: What is NAVPS?

Via email FAMI send a State of Account Quarterly. This is in PDF form that your easily view and/or print for reference. 

Every FAMI investor also receive access to the FAMI Portal which is a platform created to monitor your investments. Last year the FAMI Portal had a major overhaul and I also created a guide on how to use the New FAMI Portal. READ: A Special Guide on the New FAMI Investor's Portal

So How's Your Investment, Izza?

Screnshot from my FAMI Investor Portal

The photo above is a screenshot of my Statement of Account from January 2015 to February 2016. As you may notice I failed to invest on a monthly basis. There are months like February 2015 and September 2015 that I missed paying for my FAMI-SALEF. You can also notice how the NAVPs change every month that affects that number of shares that my money can buy. This proves how unpredictable the economy can be. 

I also am quick to mention that I don't put that much money in my FAMI-SALEF for two reasons:

1. I have other investment/s that I'll reveal in the near future. 
2. I am still young (22) and this FAMI-SALEF is reserved as a Retirement Fund meaning I have zero plans of withdrawing my investment in the next 10-20years. I am really preserving it for future use.

My First Loss in my FAMI-SALEF Investment

Now I must be honest with you that I experienced my first loss in my FAMI-SALEF Investment.

Towards the end of September 2015 I wasn't able to open my FAMI Portal account because I forgot my password. Still I paid via Metrobank as month pass by. Then last March I decided I have to gain access again on my account because I want to know how my fund is performing. Imagine how I felt seeing the red mark. I lost 172.17 pesos!!!

Thankfully the new FAMI Portal gives you a quick breakdown of the NAVPs History on the different FAMI Investment Products. I immediately reviewed the NAVPs on FAMI-SALEF and found the reason why I had an unwanted loss.

See photos below:

By January 2016 the NAVPs suddenly dropped. From 5.0062 of January 10 it became 4.7707 the following day. Now that's a shocking difference. 

This even got worse on January 21 with 4.6414. 

Thankfully by the end of February 2016 the NAVPs closed in 5.005 and it continue to become stronger day after day.

Current NAVPs as of this writing is 5.2988. 

My Thoughts

• Loss is normal. Again there's no guarantee in any investment. It is sad of course but keep the faith. It's fortunate that the NAVPs is fighting really hard though.
• Since I am investing in a long term I am not that worried with this loss. I continue investing in my FAMI-SALEF account hoping (and praying) that the NAVPs will perform better. 
• If you notice, SALEF is still the best performing our of the other Investment Products of FAMI. I firmly believe that in the coming months there will be a big change and I'll start gaining. 

Overall

I must admit that the sudden loss and weak NAVPs performance made me pause a little but thinking of my financial goals made it clear that this phase is pretty much normal. I hope on my next update there will be good news already. 

Do you invest in FAMI-SALEF too? What's your experience so far? Please do share in the comment section below.

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A Special Guide on the New FAMI Investor's Portal

It's been a long time since I updated you guys on my FAMI investments so I thought it is just ideal to create a quick post. I am still part of the FAMI investors and just before June ends I received an invitation to join the 2015 FAMI Annual Shareholder's Meeting. Sadly, I wasn't able to attend because I already have an scheduled event.

Aside from the Annual Shareholder's Meeting,  I also recently found out that FAMI had an overhaul of their Investor's Portal. And this is post is a special guide I created on the new FAMI Portal.

Reader Question: What do you think are the best FUNDS in FAMI that I should start with?!

For the first week of February I have received questions from Sir Jonathan all concerning investing in FAMI-SALEF. I asked him if I could share his question as part of this month's Reader Question together with the answer I personally sent him. Glad that he agreed as both us know that there may be others who have the same question in mind but don't know how or whom to ask.

Anyhow here's the full message of Sir Jonathan.

This the answer that I gave:

How I Opened my FAMI Mutual Account ( STEP by STEP GUIDE w/ PICTURES)

Last Wednesday i made a big decision in my life. I opened a FAMI MUTUAL FUND!!! Yes, and it is my very first step towards financial security. My first mutual fund will be my retirement fund. I plan not to take any money from it but just invest and invest as long as i could.

For those who are clueless what mutual fund is and what FAMI is all about i might introduce the said terms in a separate blogpost just because i don't to want too many ideas in this post. Just as the title states, this will ONLY be a STEP BY STEP GUIDE in opening a FAMI MUTUAL FUND account.

STEP 1. Download all documents needed HERE, print and fill in. The only form that you not fill in is the refund form which is in red texts. The rest you need to answer.

The AOF or Account Opening Form

These are all the forms you need to print out and fill in.

Do Not Answer This Form

STEP 2. Photocopy your 2 valid IDs. Mine is a TIN and Postal ID. FAMI is not that strict with the ID as long as the photo and signature is given. 

Take note: Photocopy and not the original.

STEP 3. Deposit your initial 5000pesos at the nearest Metrobank to you. The account name and account number will be based on what type of FAMI account you will be opening. I opened the First Metro Save and Learn Equity. 

Account Name: First Metro Save and Learn Equity

Account Number: 016306251497

For complete account name and account numbers click here.

Make sure to have the deposit slip with you as you go out the bank.

STEP 4. Scan all the answered forms and the photocopy of the ID (I scanned my IDs though and not the photocopy) as well as the deposit slip. Send this to FAMI@firstmetro.com.ph. Send everything. Make sure you scanned your deposit slip as well as ID.

STEP 5. Photocopy the deposit slip and together with the original forms that you answered either send it personally to FAMI's office or just like what i did, send it thourgh courier like LBC, Air 21 and so on. 

I sent mine to the following address:

To: First Metro Asset Management, Inc.

Address: 18th floor PS Bank Center 777 Paseo de Roxas Avenue corner Sedeño Street Salcedo Village, Makati City

Contant number: 8912860-65

If you have time go personally to the office but if you think that it will cost too much time and effort on your side you can do the step that i did. 

STEP 6. Wait for your confirmation email that will be sent the following day. FAMI will email you once they received the scanned copy. Then they will ask you to send the hard copy via email and all you have to do is verify to them that you already sent it.

Thant's it! You just have to wait once the FAMI already got the hard copy. Since i just opened yesterday   It is just this afternoon that the FAMI will receive my hard copy documents. I got the email that they received the scanned copy this morning.

I will blog for my FAMI updates and experience, no worries. I will keep you posted. I hope you cans end your email address and subscribe to my blog so you will get the updates on time. Comment below for any questions and concerns. I would like to help you in any way i can. Thank you for dropping by my humble blog.

Love,

Izza

savingspinay.blogspot.com

Reader Question Part 2: How to Manually Compute for Your Mutual Fund Earnings

I have posted Sir Jonathan’s series of question before and I know I promised that I will update the Part 2 as well as Part 3 of our conversation. If you missed the part 1 then just click Reader Question.

Here is the second part of his question.



And this is my answer:

How to Compute for your FAMI Investment

As many of you may know now, I am currently working on my portfolio income as a 2014 goal. I invested in a FAMISALEF Mutual Fund and continuously invest monthly as my Retirement Fund. Since I am using a personal investment method to which I will share in a future post, I decided to just write a short blog on How to compute your FAMI Investments.

          Once you had a FAMI account you will receive a letter from FAMI office per investment made. The letter contains information about your recent investment or mainly the variables needed to compute for your FAMI investments as well as ROI as follows:

Number of Shares bought

NAVPS

Amount Invested

Take note of these information and let’s start to do the math. Tip #1: Buy a folder and/or any envelop wherein you can collect the mails sent to you by FAMI for future reference

Formula:

Number of Shares x Value of NAVPS = Investment

         Let’s have a working sample. Say, you invested 5,000pesos in June and the current NAVPS is 5.304. The value of your shares as per the FAMI receipt is a total of 1,112 shares.

                Number of Shares x Value of NAVPS = Investment

                1,112 shares x 5.3024= 5,896.2688

          This means that you have a gain of 896.2688pesos for your investment.

                

          Now take note that this a sample only. Your investment depends a lot on the value of NAVPS and the number of shares you bought. Also take note that this co-depends too on the terms and condition in your FAMI investment of choice. In FAMI, if you withdraw your funds within 6 months you have an exit fee of 1.5% which will be deducted to your ROI.

          Is this post helful? If you have further questions on How to Start Investing in FAMI or on How to Invest itself then be sure to leave your questions on my contact form above and/or simply email me at izzaglinofull@gmail.com

               

My 2015 Investment Plans and Nice to Haves

Hi everyone! How's 2015 going? Some may still have a major holiday hangover. Don't worry you are not alone. Even me just want to more time on my bed because the weather calls me so. It is very cold here in the Philippines at sobrang sarap matulog!!! Comment below if you agree.

Anyways, I hope that after a much needed blog rest (I haven't posted for the entire holiday, have I?!), you will still support and read this humble blog of mine. 2014 is filled with great posts and I feel a bit of a pressure to keep up with the expectations. I created about 147 blog posts and most of them were created on the half of the past year. What's your favorite blog post of mine from 2014?!

Today I'll be sharing My 2015 Investment Plans and Nice to Haves. I know that I put a lot of emphasis as to how I made my major financial decision to invest last year. That decision opened a whole lot of lessons and realizations that deserve another entire blog post so I hope you'll stay tune. Of course as part of Making 2015 the Best Year Ever, I just have to plan for better investments this year.

Just a quick recap here are some of the posts I created about INVESTING. I just feel like reading each and every post could motivate you to start your journey to financial freedom as well.

INVESTMENT VEHICLES

All about the different investment vehicles you can try

• How to Open a BPI Express Teller Account
• How I Opened my FAMI Account w/ PICTURES
• What is NAVPS?
• What is Peso-Cost Averaging Method?
• What is UITF Investment?
• FAMI OR COL (Beginner's Alert!)
• UITF vs. Mutual Fund (Beginner's Alert!)

ALL ABOUT FAMI

All about my experience in my major financial investing with FAMI-SALEF

• FAMI OR COL (Beginner's Alert!)
• How I Opened my FAMI Account w/ PICTURES
• How to Pay your FAMI Account through Metrobank Direct
• 7 Advantages of Mutual Fund
• FAMI Update!
• How to Compute for your FAMI Investments
• How to Worry Invest in the Philippines

2015 Investment Plans

• As part of diversification, I plan to open up a COL Easy Invesment Program Account by the first quarter of the new year. I have mentioned this on my Financial Goal and I know you may have asked why the need to diversify. Well, Diversification, has been a golden topic in the finance world and I even put this as #3 in my Top 10 Most Important Lesson in Personal Finance series that I will be very glad if you check out. Diversifying my investment is a top priority this year because I needed new lot/s to park my money and as every investment is a risk, you might want guarantee you have money on different streams.
• Opening up a photobooth business. I have been obsessed with this idea for a long time but I always procrastinate in doing so. I hope this year I could make this concrete plan on how I can add a photobooth business on my current event business' products and services. Again for those who are visiting this blog for the first time, I am a professional event emcee and party planner.
• 2 Niche Blogs intended for monetization. I may have shared the quick story about this on my BPI Credit Card blog post but yes I am securing a niche blog for monetization purposes. I love writing and if I could earn from it, I better invest for it big time. Don't worry SavingsPinay and my beauty and lifestyle blog IzzaGlino are not the blogs I am talking about. Soon you'll know :)
• Other Investments that I am eyeing (though not of big priority)

                 a. BPI Investment

                 b. BDO EIP

                 c. SunLife

                 d. Art King Mutual Fund

                 e. St. Peter/Memorial Lot

2015 Investment Must Haves

There's just much that I have to learn in the investing world so I am planning to buy more financial books. I have seen Mark Germo's Stock Investing Made Easy and it is part of my must-haves this 2015. Just as how you need the word of God to feed your soul, I believe that reading books and financial blogs also help enrich our minds so I hope to collect, to read and to capture more investing lessons this year.

Another must have for me is to attend investing seminars because that has been part my 2014 Goals. I want to experience attending in seminars that talks about finances or doing business and just to grab all the knowledge that I could get.

Last but not the least, a must have for me this 2015 is to share more of my investment story. I want to inspire others to take advantage of their age and start planning for the future. I believe that apart from helping me and my finances, investing have opened me more to others. Just last year I was able to encourage three individuals to start with their investment journey. I hope to make more people love investing too.

I can never call myself an expert in the investing field but I believe that experience is the life's best teacher. As always, I thank God for the blessing in my financial life.

 
What is/are your investment plan/s?! What is/are your must-s 2015?

Be better in your finances. Save Now, Invest Now and walk your way to success. Sign up in my Email List and receive templates to get you started in your Financial Wealth. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for better updates. Godbless

Learn to Invest Without Tears Before 2014 Ends

Growing up, I was taught that the only way that I could earn money is to get a job. The term "investing" sounds very foreign and very uncommon for me. When I started dropping by at National Bookstore and reading books in business and investing books that I became fully aware that there are more opportunities available.

If you want to earn more money, you have to work for longer hours and you have to be available for the job. This is where investing is applicable. You let the money work for you.

There are many ways that you can make an investment. This consists of putting money on stocks, managed funds such as mutual funds, bonds, UITF and even investing on properties and real estates. Collectively they are called "investment vehicles" wherein each vehicle possess has pros and cons but everyone as early as you are now, you need to start investing! You have to put a certain amount of your income to work for you slowly.

What Investing is all about?

Investing is all about taking risk for something that you believe will give you a benefit in the future. You cannot invest in an investment vehicle that you do not know as such not anyone will proceed to directly investing in stocks if he/she doesn't even know the true meaning of stocks.

FAMI Update!

So from this post I have mentioned that I enrolled a FAMI Mutual Fund. The truth is, I wasn’t able to have my initial investment a month after I have received via mail my confirmation receipt. I enrolled the account on the month of February but was only able to top up my investment by the month of April.

Anyhow, for the update on my FAMI account I am doing the Peso-Cost Averaging method of investment. I treat my FAMI account as a regular savings account wherein I invest monthly and don’t miss a single month. This way I know that my money is growing.  Thank God I have my Metrobank Direct so it’s easier for me to pay bills. 

 CLICK HERE to know how to Pay your FAMI account through Metrobank

I also receive a monthly mail straight to my home from FAMI. They give me idea on the Number of Shares that I currently own and the Amount I paid. I collect these mails for future references.

Just for 2months I was able to gain 350pesos to my account. More on how to compute your FAMI investments in my future blog posts. That is almost 5% of my total investment.

 I know 350pesos seems so little but knowing the fact that I actually didn’t do anything for my money to grow that much is awesome. No bank can give a 5% gain in just 2 months!

Slowly I am learning my way into the FAMI Portal. I still have a lot of terms to absorb. Stocks has been very new for me but I am believing that it will be all worth it in the end.

Thank you for reading my post. For further inquiries you may email me here: izzaglinofull@gmail.com

READER'S QUESTION: How does FAMI work???

Hello everyone! If in case you are new in my blog, make sure to click the image on the top right and become My September Commenter of the Month!!! I am giving away 300pesos worth of Sedexo Gift Certificates and 500pesos worth of Ever Bilena and Careline Products. It is my pa-ber month treat for everyone! Again, click the image on the top right.

Last July I received this reader’s question through my contact form. I wasn't able to create a blogpost though I did answer her inquiry through a private reply. But I believe that there may be some who has the same question as her so I here am I broadcasting the answer I sent to her!

Hi Lala!

FAMI is a trusted Mutual Fund corporation here in the Philippines. It is actually tied up with Metrobank so you’ll be sure that your money is in good hands.

A mutual fund is a type of investment wherein you let a financial institution manage how your investment goes. Basically, the FAMI will do everything for you unlike having a personal investment in stock market like COL (if you're familiar) wherein you manually buy and sell stocks.

Upon opening of your account, FAMI will diversify your money to different market pools. You'll receive monthly letter about the NAVPS and the amount of your purchase and so on.

For more information make sure to read the following FAMI posts up on my blog:

HOW I OPENED MY FAMI MUTUAL ACCOUNT w/ PICTURES

HOW TO PAY YOUR FAMI ACCOUNT THROUGH METROBANK DIRECT

7 ADVANTAGES OF MUTUAL FUND

FAMI OR COL (Beginners Alert)